


only for you

by seasparks



Series: Leamilie love stories [2]
Category: CrossCode (Video Game)
Genre: CrossCode Spoilers, F/F, semi-nonverbal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25419622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasparks/pseuds/seasparks
Summary: After months of research, testing, and treatment, Sergey is confident that he's finally solved Lea's speech issues. So, why can she still not speak more than a few disjointed words at a time?
Relationships: Lea/Emilie
Series: Leamilie love stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1841182
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	only for you

**Author's Note:**

> This has MAJOR spoilers in it! Do not read it if you haven't beat the game and don't want to be spoiled!

"Okay, Lea, can you say your name for me?"

"Yes."

"Very funny, Lea. Now, please, your name."

"Lea."

"And your girlfriend's name?"

"Emilie!"

"What about my name?"

"Sergey."

"Very good. Now, can you tell me what my relationship is to you?"

"Friend!"

"And Emilie's?"

"Love! Lea love Emilie!"

"Okay, there we go! Can you say a longer sentence for me now? It doesn't have to be much, just a fully-formed sentence."

"...no."

Lea looked down at her lap, sad to have once again disappointed Sergey. Emilie reached over and took Lea's hand, gently caressing it with her thumb to try and calm her girlfriend.

Sergey smiled sadly. "It's okay, Lea. It's not your fault. I just don't understand, though...as far as I can tell, we should have cleared up all the issues with your speech. There should be nothing keeping you from speaking the same as Shizuka can, and yet clearly something is."

The last few months had been busy for Sergey. Shortly after going public with Evotars and letting them back into CrossWorlds, Instatainment created a new Evotar R&D Division and—to no one's surprise but Sergey's—made Sergey its head. Thankfully, he had risen to the challenge, and quickly made his number one priority finding quality of life improvements for the Evotars. Among those projects, he made sure the task of dealing with Lea's speech problems was his responsibility, and he had made leaps and bounds thanks to his own brilliance and the full financial backing of a major corporation. Still, despite having added almost everything Lea could need to her vocabulary, she was still having trouble making the leap from the pidgin she had been using her whole short life to full English.

Lea nodded at Sergey. "Sorry...thanks..." she said, but her disappointment in herself was still evident on her face.

"We'll try again next week, _ma chérie_ , don't worry," said Emilie, giving Lea's hand a squeeze.

"Thanks, Emilie," Lea said, and returned the squeeze. Then, more softly, "Lea loves you," accompanied by a peck to the cheek.

Sergey watched the couple leave, then took off his glasses to clean them while he thought. "Did she just...no, it's surely nothing," he muttered to himself, before logging off.

* * *

The next week, the same exercises, the same results. Lea looked even more crestfallen than before, though Sergey couldn't tell if it was because she was frustrated with herself or because she wanted to make him proud.

Suddenly, Sergey looked at something off to one side. "Sorry, I'm being paged. Would you two mind waiting here for me? I won't be long." Before Lea or Emilie could reply he swept out of the room.

As soon as they were alone, Lea scooted closer to Emilie, who took her cue and pulled Lea close in an embrace. "It's okay, _ma chérie,_ " she whispered. "Nerd boy will figure something out. And if he doesn't, I'll just ask him to make a construct out of the offending code and I'll punch it until it behaves!"

Lea looked up at her girlfriend and smiled, a few stray tears rolling down her cheek. She reached up and kissed Emilie softly on the lips. "Thank you, love," she said quietly.

They sat together in silence for a while, until Lea spoke again, so softly Emilie could barely hear her. "Talking...hard..."

" _Oui_ , I know. But if anyone can figure out why, it's Sergey," said Emilie.

Lea shook her head.

"What, you don't think he can?!"

Lea's eyes widened and she shook her head. "No! Wrong!" she said, more forcefully.

"Then what?" asked Emilie.

Another long silence passed. Then, slowly, one word at a time, Lea whispered, "Not...Sergey's...fault. Talking...is hard..."

Emilie kissed Lea's forehead. "I'm sure one of you will figure it out eventually. It just...wait, wait, wait. Did you just...?"

Lea buried her head in Emilie's shoulder and nodded.

"Should I call Sergey?"

A pause, then another nod.

"Sergey! _Allez vous!_ Lea just said something!" After a moment's thought, she added, "Like, more of a something than usual!"

Almost immediately, Sergey burst into the room. "I knew it!" he announced triumphantly. "Last week, I heard her say to you, 'Lea loves you'. Not 'Lea love you', or 'Lea loves Emilie', but specifically 'Lea loves you'. I didn't think much of it at the time, but it made me wonder...what if I just left the two of you alone for a little while? Would anything happen?" At Emilie's raised eyebrow, he quickly added, "Anything _linguistic,_ I...no, anything _related to her reacquisition of language_. Also, grow up."

Emilie stuck her tongue out at him. Her mood was suddenly excited and playful. "This is wonderful, though, Lea! You did it!"

"Yes, you certainly did!" echoed Sergey. "Now, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke: can you say that again? 'Not Sergey's fault; talking is hard,' or something similar."

Lea concentrated, her face going red (one of Evotar R&D's earliest achievements: realistic automatic physical responses). After a while, she managed, "...talking hard," followed by a forlorn, "Sorry."

Sergey jotted down a few notes, seemingly unperturbed. "That's fine, I was expecting that. Tell me, Lea: does anything feel different now, when you try to talk?"

After a moment's thought, Lea just shrugged.

"Hmm. Maybe a different approach, then: when you spoke to Emilie earlier, did anything feel different than usual?"

Lea nodded slowly.

"Can you describe the difference at all?" asked Sergey, scribbling more notes.

"Emilie," Lea said matter-of-factly. Then, giving it more thought, "Warm. Safe." And after a longer pause, "...loved." She turned back toward Emilie, hiding a blush.

Sergey laughed, startling them both. "Amazing! It was right in front of me this whole time!" He sat down on a chair and spun in circles on it, grinning wildly. "I was right! Nothing's broken at all!"

"No?" Lea insisted, pointing at her throat.

"No, Lea, that's the thing: everything on our end—on the Evotar end, I mean—is fine. Satoshi figured out the speech problems when he was working for Sidwell and worked with me here on a patch for you. I've run countless simulations, my lab developed whole new techniques in code analysis just to verify it, and your speech systems are the same as if you'd been created with the latest version of the Evotar CrossCode." He couldn't help but feel proud as he mentioned this; several wildly successful conference papers and talks had come out of his lab, from scientists whose talent had been criminally overlooked until he hired them.

"I don't get it," said Emilie. "If that's all fine, then what's going on?"

Sergey shrugged. "Not everyone's comfortable talking all the time. There are plenty of people who feel just how Lea does, and obviously none of them—or at most a handful of them, I suppose—are Evotars. Emilie, you should be glad that Lea feels comfortable enough around you to open up in a way that must be very difficult for her. And Lea, you should count yourself lucky to have someone as loving as Emilie in your life..." He trailed off, suddenly embarrassed. "Er, that is, I don't mean to put words in your mouth, Lea."

Lea raised an eyebrow and rattled off, deadpan, "Lea hi bye thanks sorry why how wait meet~"

"Ha ha, point taken," Sergey said, unable to keep a small smile from tugging at the corners of his mouth. "But you know what I mean. Did I accurately describe how you feel?" At Lea's slow nod, Sergey let himself break out into a true smile. "Excellent! I suppose that wraps it up for today. I still want to check in next week, but it looks to me like that may be the last one of these formal visits that will be necessary."

* * *

The two lovers stuck close to each other and held hands all the way back to Lea's apartment, provided by Instatainment to help her (and the other Evotars) regain some small amount of control and normalcy in their lives. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Emilie showered Lea in kisses. "Lea, _chérie_...I am so, so lucky to have you. I love you so much. Thank you for...for trusting me," she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

Lea caught Emilie in a longer, deeper kiss, then pulled back and gazed into Emilie's eyes. "I...love you, Emilie," she murmured, following it up with a kiss on her cheek, then her temple, then her ear.

Emilie let out a sound that was half-sigh, half-whimper. She started to say something, but Lea cut her off.

"Only for you." Lea whispered. "This is only for you, _ma chérie_."

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes, even if you can talk, it's just too hard, too *much*, you know?
> 
> we know.


End file.
